Deconstructing Narratives: Arsenal's attacking sell-off

Arsenal sold or loaned all its depth in attack last summer...or did they?

If you’ve known me (in the social media sense) for long, you probably know that a big part of what I do online is sarcastically lampooning common but factually incorrect or otherwise debatable sentiments among Arsenal’s fan base, or even among those of other clubs.

(In my best Troy McClure voice) This has led to such family favorites as “joke of a club, Brighton would’ve sold him for £50m” and “should’ve signed more attacking depth in January.”

Sometimes that pursuit can feel a bit Quixotic, but then I remind myself that if I can change just one mind, just one heart, then the world will have been made a better place. So today I’m introducing to you Deconstructing Narratives, a periodic series that I’m going to do however often I’m able and motivated, about ideas that pervade our fans’ minds but don’t necessarily have a basis in reality.

We’ve talked a lot about transfer windows lately, and we’re going to talk a lot more about them in the months to come. But as I’ve considered and reconsidered January and this past summer, I’ve run into a similar idea more than a few times. The screengrab is but a representation of an idea that’s been expressed to me over and over again (the identities of the posters involved have been removed to protect the innocent):

So, you see the idea here, right? It’s that Arsenal, who had briefed the media post-Bayern that they needed something more in attack, let Eddie Nketiah, Emile Smith Rowe, Reiss Nelson and Fábio Vieira go and didn’t replace them.

Narrative, come on down. Let’s. Get. Deconstructed!

The issue here is that people tend to look at the minutes table from last season like this:

OK, those bottom three didn’t really do much even from a gross total minutes point of view last season, but damn! Eddie started 13 games and came off the bench 24 times. That’s a lot of times he’s taking someone off the pitch for a breather. Similar for Reiss (18), ESR (15) and Vieira (13).

The issue with looking at it this way, though, is simple: A rotation shifts throughout the season. A player in the manager’s plans at the beginning of the season may very well not be there anymore by the end, whether that’s because they were only there for cups, or in Arsenal’s case, due to a seismic shift in how one player was used.

Dun Dun Dun … Kai to striker

That’s right, the day Mikel Arteta finally gave up on his failed experiment for good (no) and moved Kai Havertz into a starting role as number 9. Kai had actually started the Community Shield there, but didn’t do so again until January 7, against Liverpool in the FA Cup. From there, Kai made a further 21 starts for Arsenal in all competitions, only six of which came as midfielder.

January 7 ended up being a huge day in Arsenal’s season, both because it led to a lineup which would win a hell of a lot of games and nearly win the league, but also because it would drastically change the rotation.

In Eddie’s case, he had already made all 13 of the starts he would get that campaign by January 7, acting as primary backup to Gabriel Jesus at striker. Given Eddie had nearly half of this group of four’s total minutes for the season, the point at which he stopped making starts is a big of a watershed moment.

Perhaps an easier way to view it is in a simple bar graph, so check out the below.

Here are the raw numbers, if you’re interested:

Eddie Nketiah, prior to Jan 8: 1,281 minutes
Reiss Nelson, prior to Jan 8: 432 minutes
Emile Smith Rowe, prior to Jan 8: 251 minutes
Fábio Vieira, prior to Jan 8: 424 minutes
Total prior to Jan 8: 2,388 minutes

Eddie post Jan 8: 150 minutes
Reiss post Jan 8: 220 minutes
ESR post Jan 8: 255 minutes
Fábio post Jan 8: 56 minutes
Total post Jan 8: 681 minutes

You may also notice here that I’ve isolated the Luton Town (home) match here. I’ve done so because we saw Reiss and ESR each start and put in more than 70 minutes in what would be an Arsenal win just a few days after drawing City away and before Brighton home. In that case, it was of course handy to have some guys to throw out there, but those minutes do account for something like a third of ESR’s and Reiss’s time in active duty in 2024, so I felt that worth highlighting.

Now, of course it’s worth pointing out that Vieira picked up a red card and then an injury in November that kept him out of squads until February. But he still only saw the pitch 3 times out of the 13 PL games he was in the squad after returning, despite a flurry of key Arsenal matchups. And this summer, Arteta opted to send him to Porto for playing time in part to elevate Ethan Nwaneri to a higher role.

January 7 is notable for another reason: Arsenal lost. Having been knocked out of the Milk Cup in November, that ended their domestic trophy hopes for the season. And with it, a lot of playing time for bench options dissipated.

To illustrate: From that day on, Arsenal played 22 games in a 17 week period: 18 Premier League games, and 4 Champions League. Kai Havertz started 21 of them. Bukayo Saka? 20. Ødegaard started the whole lot of ‘em. This is my long-winded way of saying Arsenal weren’t going to rotate.

I can’t think of a better way to illustrate the changing of the Arsenal guard than by detailing the rotation used in the most important matches of the season, against Bayern Munich. In the first leg, Arteta of course started Havertz up front with Saka and Martinelli, with Ødegaard and Rice partnering Jorginho in midfield.

The bench included all four of the above, but none were used. Trossard came on for Martinelli as the first sub, scoring a key goal. Jesus came on for Jorginho and was excellent. Partey later came on for Havertz.

Arteta went unchanged in midfield and attack for leg 2, with a similar bench. Gabriel Jesus and Leandro Trossard were again the first two off the bench, and Eddie Nketiah joined them, coming on for Tomiyasu in the 86th minute with Arsenal chasing a goal.

A few days later at Wolves, Arteta returned to a similar lineup and used none of the four off the bench.

Summer business

The other thing to consider here in the whole “sold all the players” thing is that Smith Rowe and Nketiah brought in approximately €60 million (£50 million) not including add-ons. Those fees created room against PSR and UEFA squad cost rules that allowed for the additions the club ultimately made in the summer, even if fans felt underwhelmed by the lack of a permanent striker or winger signing.

Yes, absolutely, keeping these four around for a rainy day could have paid off this winter in the sense that Arsenal would have had some ready-made superheroes ready to step in. But unfortunately, we’re dealing with people here, rather than spare parts. Emile, Eddie, Reiss and Fábio do all deserve the chance to make the most of their careers and the club has given them a shot to do that in roles that are more fair to them. Perhaps that elicits a “who cares about being fair” response, but I know part of what I love about Arsenal is that it’s an upstanding club (most of the time…another talk for another day).

Depth, depth, depth

I thought Scott broke down Arsenal’s attacking depth nicely in August, prior to Raheem Sterling joining.

Once the Nelson out, Sterling in change had happened, Arsenal were essentially rolling with Saka, Havertz, Martinelli, Trossard, Jesus and Raheem, with Nwaneri waiting in the wings (no pun intended).

With six players who would for sure vie for playing time, five seriously, Arsenal’s attacking depth ended August comparing favorably to clubs around the league and Europe. What they could use, as a reminder, was more variety in profiles, something that keeping Nketiah and Nelson as seventh and eighth options wouldn’t help. Then there’s the idea that Ethan could come in and knock someone out anyway, which may have happened, anyway.

As a reminder: Liverpool’s attacking group is Salah, Gakpo, Díaz, Núñez, Jota, Chiesa. Two of those guys are injured all the time. Those guys are gonna win the title.

Chelsea have now settled into an attacking group of Jackson, Nkunku, Madueke, Sancho, Neto. Mudryk made seven appearances before getting banned! Newcastle go with Gordon, Isak, Murphy, Barnes…that’s pretty much it.

Maybe both Liverpool and Arsenal are lighter than you’d prefer, and that’s OK! But as far as the narratives go, please just know that what the Gunners did is nothing unusual.

There you go. Deconstructed? Deconstructed.